This hobby makes me want to drop kick my tank

[RiffRaff]

Came home to find my favorite fish dead. My magnificent foxface. Again no clue why. Just did water tests and here's what I got

Salinity 1.023 low, but not dangerously
Alk 8-9
Nitrates 4
Phosphates .20 high, but does that affect fish? Or just coral?
Temp 84 high, but dangerously?

When it rains it pours, found my velvet wrasse dead in the filter sock after the frag swap. And had a hawkfish just disappear. No idea what happened. Looked fine one day and Houdini the next.

I'm super aggravated right now. I'm going to the bar.

[mkart]

Sorry to hear that RiffRaff. He was a nice looking fox face. I also have had several fish just disappear on me. My tank seems to eat them sometimes. 84 seems high to me, is that a normal swing for your tank? Hope your luck turns around.

[RiffRaff]

No it's not. I need to change my GFO and carbon so those pumps I think are straining more than usual

[reefslugs]

check for voltage.

[thercwizard]

Could it possibly be you fed them before you left or something. I found my Red Flame Hawk of two years on the floor last week. I know what that problem was though, I fed right before I walked out the door. My Lavender Tang runs the tank and he startled the Hawk and he jumped right out while feeding. Two years ago had the same thing happen with my Coral Beauty. Phosphates are not supposed to effect the fish at all, so. They have that netting at the LFS, but I just can't bring myself to put it on due to looks. Hope things start looking up. Take Care, J

[RiffRaff]

It is possible that the hawk jumped out. And I suppose the cat could have eaten it. I have a coast to coast style overflow and I had just built up some eggcrate around it to where a fish woulnt be so close to the overflow. But the velvet wrasse destroyed it. So I've since redone my little fish guard. There is a canopy that fits over the whole top of the tank. The only openings are in the back of the canopy.
I've already added a ground for the tank to clear all possibilities of stray voltage.

[brandonb8]

What kind of temperature fluctuation are you experiencing? 84 is high in my opinion but not enough to kill a fish. Why is the tank temp that high? I would shoot for around 77 or so.

[Nanook]

I run my reefs 75-78.

[RiffRaff]

I usually keep it around 78. I checked the temp this morning before lights and it was at 83. I turned off a few things and it's down to 78. But I found out my culprit. Filters are bad in my RO unit. Time to get an inline tds meter.

[RiffRaff]

Now I can figure out which pump is going bad

[ebacon]

Similar issue with a friends nano tank, pump is overheating tank.....

[sbabs]

If you can get a lab grade thermometer, you can see what your temp range is. while 84 is not terribly high, if you go from 76 to 84 in a short period of time it can be hard on your inhabitants. I think fish are not as impacted by this but others may know more than I. Not saying this is what caused your mishap, just one more thing to keep in check in the crazy balancing act of reefkeeping.

I'm sorry about your issues Riff Raff. Hope they turn around.

[RiffRaff]

Who carries RO filters locally?

[blueswon1]

marine solutions

[hampmp]

Originally Posted by blueswon1

marine solutions

[RiffRaff]

I think SS does too. But I've never been there is search of those so I haven't really actually looked for them there

[tall_jason79]

They did at one point in time, then again i haven't been to a fish store in over a year.

[Paul B]

Your parameters and temperature is not what is killing your fish. Nor is the electricity. The cat, I am not sure about but the parameters have to be way out of the ballpark to kill fish. They can withstand huge salinity and temperature changes and you would see wierd behaviour before they die like laying on the bottom or gulping air.
I don't know what killed them because I can't see them from here.

[twiggyb]

Seascape carries them. Right up front.

[RiffRaff]

Well the only thing I've found to be way out of whack is the tds on my RO unit. 343 after the DI. That's the onl thing way off that I can conclude. Yes I have other params off. By not hugely and they aren't spiking. So the only thing I can think of would be that there's some crazy chemical coming through my water. The wrasse had to be alive when it went in the overflow. Otherwise it wouldn't have been able to destroy the eggcrate barrier I had setup by the drain pipes. And the hawkfish just disappeared. So for all I know a fish killed him. But the foxface was acting a little off kilter about a day or two before he died (god rest his soul).

[drummereef]

Have you tested Ammonia lately? With TDS like what you currently tested, you're basically drawing straight tap water which obviously contains Chlorine/Chloramines depending on your water district. I think you've at least pinned down the first fix.

To clarify, is the TDS 343 or 0.343?

[zero26]

If all the parameters are ok, does anybody consider fish dying of old age or natural causes? We really don't know how old are fish really are, other than some species that change colors over time.

[RiffRaff]

No I haven't checked ammonia. Don't even have a test kit for it anymore. But it was 343.0. Got all new filters, DI, and membrane. Still in the first ten gallons through it and I'm getting a reading of 8 now. But like isaid. Still in the first 10 gallons. I've honestly considered the old age thing. Except that I've noticed that I have no more Xenia. No big loss there but it is gone now. And I have a Kenya tree that looks like its dying. But all o the corals that I actually like are doing great. Even anemones are doing great. But tomorrow I'm gonna do a big water and go from there. And start figuring out what pump is going bad

[mkart]

At 343 your RO membrane is probably bad. May want to check the reading going in and out of the membrane before the DI. If it is bad the DI will exhaust quickly.

[RiffRaff]

Ya that's why I replaced everything. DI membrane and filters. Got 18 preDI now. 2 after DI